However, what is not generally known by the public is that although you will be designing all these items, the finished work will be commissioned from outside studios in the case of advertisements and print work, while TV commercials will be made by independent production companies. Choosing these suppliers requires skill, knowledge and experience. In television and radio you will have the help of your writer and TV producer. For advertisements and print the choice will be entirely yours, although some agencies have art buyers who can help, particularly when it comes to negotiating costs. With an advertisement you will often have to decide whether it is best illustrated by a drawing or a photograph. You may then have to look through realms of examples before you decide on the right person for the job. Just think of the variety of work you may have to commission: computer graphics or cartoon treatment for a commercial; a glossy colour illustration or a strip cartoon; action, fashion or food photography; straight-forward shots of the client's packs. Commercial studios, photographers and, indeed, production companies are often highly specialized and the process of choosing the right one can be time consuming. You become an expert on the experts.
You will be expected to keep this knowledge up to date, to make the time to look at studio representatives' portfolios of illustrators, story board artists or photographers. Also, to look at the show reel of a new director or production company when invited to do so by your TV producer. You should be able to assess this work and remember names as you never know when you might need them.
The art director, sometimes backed up by his writer, is then responsible for 'briefing' the film director, artist or photographer that means telling them exactly what is needed. Naturally, you supervise the work closely, attend shoots and photographic sessions, and make sure everything is right. In the case of photography, you may spend hours poring over a light box choosing the ideal photograph from a sheaf of contact negatives. Remember that the creative team will be held responsible if the finished film or advertisement fails to live up to its initial promise.
Because the finished product is produced in this way, it is not necessarily vital for the art director to draw well, but it certainly helps. Particularly helpful is the ability to produce slick roughs, illustrating an idea or a copy line. One of England's best creative teams depends largely on what they call 'the overnight test'. As they work, roughs are pinned to the wall where they remain until the following day. A good night's sleep leads to a reappraisal. The roughs are weeded out until only the best remain.
The art director, as well as being an ideas man and a designer, must also be a sound technician because an advertisement has got to work, which means it must fill the allotted space attractively and effectively. A wide knowledge of printing and typography is needed, since good typography adds immeasurably to an advertisement's impact, readability and style, and it is the art director who will choose the type face. Once the advertisement is approved it falls to the production department to transform the art director's layout into a 'mechanical', but the art director remains very much in control, perhaps choosing the house style and certainly monitoring all stages of production and correcting colour reproduction if necessary.
Of course there are humdrum jobs to be done like pasting things on boards and looking for scrap art from magazines to use in rough layouts. A new entrant into a creative department can expect to be doing such jobs. How long and how quickly it takes to graduate to the more interesting business of designing good advertising depends on talent and initiative. If you are really good there is nowhere to go but up to where there is money to be made and awards to be won.
Listen to a top art director talking about his job: 'I think I am probably better now than I was fifteen years ago but one has to work at it, pushing oneself further and further-subjecting oneself to vicious self-criticism. The need is to reassure yourself and others that you've still got it. It's a matter of pride, not vanity. The only way to be good at this job is to put everything you've got into it. When I get home after work I'm drained. I used to paint a lot. Now I haven't the energy. But I'm still more influenced by artist's work than by award winning ads. Those just lead one to copy...to regurgitate, and that's death. Great pictures stretch one's mind...make one think. Perhaps you saw the Shell poster with the headline: "Nothing is more dangerous than a wet Zebra." I owe that visual to the Stubbs Exhibition at the Tate. Mind you, I had to muscle the zebra up a bit and add the stripes, but the ominous power, the feeling of danger was pure Stubbs. One of the best things about advertising is the people, creative people that is. It's a fantastic club to belong to.'
Another leading art director tells much the same story. It fell to him to change the look of advertising for a well-known brand of cigarettes. The aspiration look of the existing advertising had begun to be copied-the pack reverently placed on velvet and satin together with an orchid and a string of pearls. He describes feeling like a rat in a trap, with almost everything forbidden. No young people, nobody enjoying themselves, only a handful of meaningless words to be allowed.
He took a number of bold steps. His inspiration was a Magritte-type surrealism in which the gold pack appeared in unlikely situations-inside a bird cage, as one of the pyramids or part of Stonehenge. No words at all were used. These advertisements were for posters at that time and used mainly to back up TV commercials. The cigarette became the brand leader. Asked what is the most important lesson for an art director to learn? He answers: To be able to accept rejection.
